Crowbar - Sever The Wicked Hand

Such has been the success of Down, a one-time side-project and now fully functioning confederacy, that Kirk Windstein could be forgiven for letting Crowbar fall into a state of torpor. However, six years is too long for a band whose mournful riffs and unkempt grooves formed the exoskeleton of the self-harming New Orleans sludge sound. Where buddies Eyehategod are all about nihilistic self-destruction, Crowbar were always more reflective. And that’s kind of what ‘Sever The Wicked Hand’ is all about, corpulent down-tuned riffs and a sense of grizzled resignation articulated through Windstein’s taut songwriting and sorrowful croon. Let’s hope they tour this.